Friday, October 31, 2014

I’ve been thinking of some brazen way to use
Halloween to promote Pilot Point.
Hey everyone else uses Halloween to promote products. Of course, some skip right to using
Christmas already, but anyway…

But I just could not think
of a good way to do so.Maybe I’m
not crass enough.More likely, an
allergy attack this week has taken a lot of deviousness out of me.(Yes, it was that bad.But I am feeling better now.)

So I will just say . . .
Have a safe, fun evening.Watch
out for kids when driving.And
have a blessed All Saints Day tomorrow.

The group’s investigation
found that thousands of people in Frederick County who stated that they are not
U.S. citizens on jury duty forms went on to cast votes in elections. Either
they failed to tell the truth when they were summoned for jury duty, or they
cast illegal votes. Both are crimes.

Please
note that these thousands who either voted illegally or lied on the jury duty
forms are from just one county in Maryland. Yes, people do lie to avoid jury duty; that surely accounts
for a portion of the number. Still it is safe to say that illegal non-citizen
voting in Maryland is more than enough to swing a close election.

And
I think I best leave it at that for now.The implications of such massive election fraud are disturbing, to say
the least.

Pilot Point is a very
Texan novel set along I-20 in West Texas and around the town of Pilot Point in
North Texas. With drought, dust, cowboys, and cattle, it could be called a
Western except it is set in the late 20th Century and not many get shot up.

At the same time, Pilot
Point has a strong Anglican flavor, weaving The Book of Common Prayer and traditional Christian themes through
the story. (And that without being heavy-handed about it. I sought to write a
weighty work of literature, not a Christian tract.) Not many novels have both
cowboys and Anglicanism.

So
this is probably going to be the best d**n Anglican cowboy novel you'll read
all year.

But
wait, there's more:

I will hold the release
event for Pilot Point at a GUN SHOW – at the Shiners Gun Show in Corpus Christi
on November 8th. I thought that more interesting than having it at a local
bookstore and a way to get the novel more directly to fellow Texans who would
appreciate it. Besides, it’s a GUN SHOW!

So
it looks like at least some of you Texas morons down near Corpus Christi might
be able to take in a gun show and meet the author, too. That's almost a perfect
day.

Monday, October 27, 2014

A
report that a WSJ/NBC poll had Republicans up 11 points “among likely voters
on the question of which party should control Congress” seemed such an outlier
I had to check it out for myself.You see it is good for Republicans to be even or barely ahead on such “generic”
congressional ballot questions.They are hardly ever way ahead.And WSJ/NBC polls are so skewed toward Democrats, they have become a bad
joke to me.

But
it is true.Further, a clear
majority of likely voters, 52%, want Republicans to control Congress according to this WSJ/NBC poll.

To
get to the point, this points to a Republican “wave” election as big or bigger
than 2010.Seeing this and a number of individual Senate polls, I think the only way the Democrats even come
close to holding the Senate is massive luck or massive fraud or both. And that is possible but . . . unless something awful happens for
Republicans, Obama will become either a very lame duck or a dictator with
little support in Congress in ten days.

Friday, October 24, 2014

One
reason Election Day has become Election Month in some states is to give
Democrats more opportunity to commit election fraud.And given that almost three-quarters of statewide races with
margins of under 1% have been won by Democrats since 1998, it appears election
fraud is one thing Democrats can do very well.

But
a state that may outdo them all on election fraud this year is Colorado.Both Democrat Senator Mark
Uterus Udall and the gun-grabbing Democrat Governor John
Hickenlooper are in trouble.And
the Guv and his Demorat Legistature have changed the election laws so that they practically invite election fraud.Mailing out ballots to everyone and same-day registration stand out.It is safe to say that efforts to steal
the election are well underway there.

One
Coloradan, Sarah Hoyt, has just written with eloquent anger on what Democrats are
doing to Colorado.And she says
what others, even yours truly, is hesitant to say:

Will we tolerate
this? For how long? Why doesn’t anyone else realize that under the
cover of seeming openness they’re making our votes mean nothing?

And why don’t the clever
fools in the Democratic Party realize that when you block the ballot box, people
will come at you another way?

True,
the country has long reacted with remarkable peace after stolen elections, even
after the stolen 2008 Senate race in Minnesota that “elected” Al Franken and
ended up giving Obamacare the needed 60th vote.(By the way, Minnesota, are you really
going to re-elect that fraudulent turd?)

But
it is presumption for Democrats to think they can keep stealing elections with
little price to pay, especially when their fraud furthers tyranny.And that’s probably all I should say .
. . for now.

Hoyt
has a simple but to the point remedy for the present:

I’m not calling for
revolution. I’m hoping very much we can avoid it. I’m exhorting
those of you in CO and similarly blinkered states to vote and to vote
Republican . . . while we can still turn these election rules around. And
do it before they become cemented in place. Even if we have to hold the squishy
Republicans’ feet to the fire.

Now
I am not thrilled with the Republican Party.And I have voted third-party on occasion and will do so
again.But Hoyt is right.For all their faults, most Republican
officials seek to further the integrity of elections through Voter ID and other
measures, and they oppose fraud enabling such as same-day registration.

And
we must have legitimate elections.The current toxic mixture of tyranny and stolen elections cannot be
allowed to continue if we wish to continue as a nation with a semblance of
freedom and the rule of law.

---MORE: Deroy Murdock gives an idea on how massive election fraud is likely to be in Colorado due to mail-in ballots.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

You
may have seen my take on the recently concluded Extraordinary Synod, which is
that Pope Francis is acting too much like a Pope Rowan and is not to be trusted.Harsh, yes.And, as I stated then, I am among those who hope my take proves to be mistaken.

But
for a much lighter, probably more perceptive, and downright funny take on the
Extraordinary Synod, I point you to George Weigel for a short and excellent
read.

It
is too short to excerpt much, but this was my favorite part:

2. The 2014 Synod
demonstrated the extraordinary self-confidence of bishops from dying local
churches who nonetheless feel quite comfortable giving pastoral advice to local
churches that are either thriving or holding their own. Many northern European
bishops and theologians (and bishop-theologians) acted as if the blissful years
when they set the agenda for the world Church at Vatican II had returned. That
these same bishops and theologians and bishop-theologians have presided over
the collapse of western European Catholicism in the intervening five decades
seemed not to matter to them in the slightest. Happy days were here again.

Yes,
the similarities with liberal bishops in the Anglican Communion are hard to
miss - even through the laughter.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

I’ve
been reading a lot from and about C. S. Lewis this year.I think Alister McGrath’s recent excellent
biography C. S. Lewis - A Life and
coming across two small out-of-print books by Lewis in Oxford may have prompted
this direction.In any case, when
I heard of this book, Seeking the Secret
Place, about his spiritual formation, about the influences on his growth as
a Christian, I knew I had to read it as well.(So, yes, the book has been out for ten years, but it is new
to me.)

Not
only was I not disappointed, Seeking the Secret Place: The Spiritual Formation of C. S. Lewis exceeded my
expectations. Lyle Dorsett backs his book with extensive research.As Director of the Wade Center at Wheaton
College, he had unusual opportunity to travel, interview, and dig into a
treasure trove of primary sources.He particularly made use of Lewis’ correspondence.

The
result is a very readable book that covers some lesser known aspects of C. S.
Lewis' personal life and spiritual growth.Lewis’ relationship with Father Walter Frederick Adams of
the Cowley Fathers is an important focus as is Lewis’ faithfulness in his
sacrificial commitment to respond thoughtfully to letters, even to fan mail and to those asking a bit much of his time and effort.

I
must emphasize the book is not only of historic interest, although it certainly
is that.It can be very helpful to
those seeking to grow as Christians themselves. I personally find both the
guidance given to Lewis and the guidance he gave to others very instructive and
edifying.Further, I am already using excerpts from Seeking the Secret
Place in teaching others.

So
Seeking the Secret Place is a book to
read both by those interested in the life and spiritual growth of C. S. Lewis
and those concerned about their own spiritual formation.If one finds oneself in both categories,
it is then a must-read indeed.

Strange, we were told that
warnings about attacks on religious freedom were scare tactics.Now that the warnings are coming true,
we are told our warnings are whining.And we were told the movement toward gay rights and same-sex “marriage” was
all about “tolerance.”

Friday, October 17, 2014

You
might be browsing to this post wondering who would be so Texan – or so crazy –
as to release their novel at a gun show.And the answer is . . . yours truly.

I
will hold the release event for my novel Pilot
Point at a table at the Corpus Christi Al Amin Shiners Gun Show on
Saturday, November 8th.It is located at 2001 Suntide Road, just off I-37 in Corpus.Look for the building in the back.Doors open at 9am, and I will try to be
there all day.

It
is a fun gun show, by the way, with a lot more than guns for sale.I’ve visited it and lightened my wallet
there several times.

Why
am I releasing Pilot Point at a gun
show?One reason is I want to take
my novel to people who I think would like it.With Pilot Point
being a very Texan novel and gun show attendees (like me) being very Texan, I
think it a good match.And I think
this a better and more interesting release than a traditional book signing at
a bookstore.I intend to do those,
too, but I thought a gun show would be much better place to release Pilot Point with a bang. (Sorry.I couldn’t resist.)

Besides,
it’s a GUN SHOW!

Now
if only there was a gun show held at an Anglican church.Remember that Pilot Point has a strong Anglican flavor, too.Oh, well.

By
the way, a reminder that Pilot Point is already available in print and Kindle
form.(Yes, book releases, like
store “Grand Openings”, sometimes occur after a book is available.) I know not
everyone can make it to South Texas for this event. ;)

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Tonight
is the Eve of the Feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch.He was the Bishop of Antioch in the early 2nd
Century and, during an intense persecution of Christians in that city, was
condemned to death by wild beasts, to be executed at Rome.

And
we do not know much else about him except from a number of letters he wrote to
churches as he was being taken to his sentence.

But
what letters they are!Ignatius’
heart and pugnaciously joyful personality shine through these letters.Impending martyrdom did not discourage
him but emboldened him.He even
looked forward with eagerness to “get to God” through his grisly martyrdom in
the Coliseum.

And
his letters are full of wisdom, particularly in how churches should relate to
their leaders.He also took aim at
heresies, particularly Docetism.

I
wish to conclude by quoting a statement of his about heresies in his Letter to
the Trallians.

[Heretics] mingle Jesus
Christ with their teachings just to gain your confidence under false pretenses.It is as if they were giving a deadly
poison mixed with honey and wine, with the result that the unsuspecting victim
gladly accepts it and drinks down death with fatal pleasure.

And
so it remains today.The inventors
of just about every false religion and heresy, even if mad and blind, still
realize that the person of Jesus Christ is important and attractive.Even in their delusions, they are
compelled to answer his question, “Who do you say that I am?”So they include in their falsehoods
what I call a “token Jesus.”They
give lip service to Jesus to add attractiveness and legitimacy to their false
religion.But it is not the real
Jesus Christ, but a supposed Jesus who is not the Son of God, the King
of kings and Lord of lords.And,
yes, the Jesus of “mainline” libchurchers is such a token Jesus.

Which
St. Ignatius so well warned against some 1900 years ago.God’s Holy Church does well to remember
his courage and wisdom and to thank the Lord for his teaching and godly example.

Lesbian
Houston Mayor Annise Parker and her fellow pink shirts discovered yesterday
that Americans and Texans do not take kindly to government bullying of
churches.So the Mayor and her
City Attorney backed away from their own actions, claiming they did
not know the subpoenas were that broad, that wasn’t their intent, they had been
misinterpreted, etc.

“The intent, [City
Attorney] Feldman said, was simply to get all communications between pastors
about the signature gathering instructions, a key part of a lawsuit opponents have
brought against the city. Critics filed suit after Feldman announced they had
failed to gather enough valid signatures to force a repeal referendum, claiming
the city attorney illegally inserted himself in the signature verification
process.”

That’s a blatant lie. The
communications sought were not just about “signature gathering instructions.”
They were, instead, an attempt to gather materials that would expose what the
mayor and her cronies obviously consider to be the Neanderthal, homophobic
attitudes of people who supported the petition. If that was not the case, why
ask for stuff like “All speeches, presentations, or sermons related to HERO,
the Petition, Mayor Annise Parker, homosexuality, or gender identity,” or “all
documents and communications…[dealing with] the topics of equal rights, civil
rights, homosexuality, or gender identity”?

Then
there is this tweet from the Mayor’s keyboard itself on exactly 11:12pm Tuesday
night, the night before yesterday’s backtracking.

If the 5
pastors used pulpits for politics, their sermons are fair game. Were
instructions given on filling out anti-HERO petition?-A—
Annise Parker (@AnniseParker) October
15, 2014

In case she or her staff deletes it, it reads, "If
the 5 pastors used pulpits for politics, their sermons are fair game.Were instructions given on filling out
anti-HERO petition?-A"

So
on Tuesday night, Mayor Parker is defending going after sermons. But on
Wednesday, she did not really know about going after sermons.Uh, huh.

But
I’m nit-picking.Besides, it is
nice to see the pink shirt bullies nervous for a change.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

I am among those who have warned of the totalitarian aims of the gay activist
crowd (not to be confused with gays who just want to live peaceably and mind
their own business) and their allies.Now Houston is providing a big “I told you so” moment.

Under
lesbian Mayor Annise Parker, the City of Houston passed a so-called equal
rights non-discrimination ordinance which quickly became infamous as the
“bathroom bill” allowing the mentally ill and perverts to use bathrooms
assigned to the opposite gender.But the bill contained other, less publicized, problematic provisions,
including some seen as endangering freedom of speech and religion.

Citizens
petitioned to get the ordinance overturned or at least put up to a referendum,
and their petitions got over 50,000 signatures when only 17,269 valid
signatures were needed.But the
lesbian mayor and her city attorney threw out the petition anyway.

Once
again, pink shirts and Leftists only like democracy when they get their way.

Opponents
of the ordinance rightly sued the city to overturn their anti-democratic
coup.And now the city has doubled down – and justified fears about freedom of religion and speech – by demanding to
see the contents of sermons from numerous pastors.

I
have to admit when I first saw the story about sermons being subpoenaed, it was
from a sensationalistic source, and it sounded over the top - which it is in
its own Constitution-trashing way. I did not give it much credence and moved
on.But this is coming from a
number of responsible sources now.

So
although the pace of pink shirt attacks on freedom is surprising even me, I can
still say, “I told you so.” Pink shirts and their lib/left allies have a
totalitarian streak a mile wide, and the more they get power, as in Houston, the more their streak will show.

For then they will slide off the mask of "tolerance" and inform you that getting their way and putting you under their thumb is so much more important than your trivial Constitutional rights.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

I
will let Romish bloggers wade through the details.But Pope Francis’ Extraordinary Synod on the Family has
issued a statement - a Relatio is the
Popish name for it – that among other problematic things recommends that gay
orientation is to be “valued” in the church.

I
am sorely tempted to insist my still randy heterosexual orientation be valued,
too.But I will instead point out
a pattern I have noticed.In this particular
case, orthodox Roman Catholic bloggers have run to their keyboards to say this is not as
bad as it looks at first glance.They have said the Relatio is
not a final statement. (True.) That there may be a misunderstanding due to translation. That press reports are wrong.That the statement
does not reflect the views of all the bishops. (True.)

But
this is not the first time I’ve seen this sort of episode.Not only have we seen this under
Francis, we saw it again and again under the Archbishopric of Rowan Williams,
to wit:

1.
Rowan/Francis or allies act or speak in a manner that undermines orthodoxy or
the orthodox.

2.
Orthodox who project their wishes onto Rowan/Francis and have a reservoir of
good will toward him spin the act/statement into something not so bad.Moreover, they may read something
positive between the lines or behind the scenes. (And I recall that I did this myself in more hopeful days for the Anglican Communion. - ed.)

And
that Rowan emitted a lot of fog and that Francis speaks freely and
off-the-collar in unofficial settings certainly gives room for the orthodox to
create positive interpretations and calming disclaimers.Moreover, Rowan and Francis are
likeable personalities.Heck, I
still like Rowan Williams in a way even as I deplore what he did to the
Anglican Communion.It is natural
for Christians of good will to give them the benefit of the doubt and more.

Further
neither Rowan nor Francis discourage(d) the orthodox in their wishful
spin.They may even make noises to
encourage it.

3.
Rinse.Repeat.

4.
But, alas, the passage of time and/or a more final act/statement dashes the
hopes of the orthodox.It turns
out the leadership of Rowan/Francis really was as bad as feared with
distressing consequences for the church.And all that orthodox spin is exposed as wishful thinking indeed.

With
Rowan, it got to this point by Lambeth 2008, if not before, when he invited all
the consecrators of Gene Robinson and turned Lambeth into a useless indaba session rightly boycotted by over
200 bishops.

We
have not yet gotten to such a point (i.e. 4.) with Francis.Nor do I ever expect 200 bishops to
boycott an invitation from him or any similar RC split.But I see the same pattern with him and
the orthodox as I saw with Rowan Williams.And I do expect that one day Francis or a gathering under
him will act or speak in such as way and with enough finality that it will
gravely wound the orthodoxy and the orthodox of the Roman Catholic Church.

So
forgive me if I call him Pope Rowan.

I
do honestly hope I am proven to be mistaken and unfair in so doing. I pray Francis does not prove himself
worthy to be called much worse.

Monday, October 13, 2014

The Massacre of Kobane by
ISIS is well underway (And I must warn that the article at the link is
difficult reading.), and the Massacre of Baghdad may be coming.

And Obama’s negligence in
preventing the ISIS slaughter is close to unforgivable.First, against sage advice and requests
from Iraq, he refused to leave a remnant U. S. force in Iraq.Then he was slow to respond to ISIS,
calling it “Jayvee” even after warnings it was far more dangerous than
that.Then he was very slow, at
best, in arming our best allies in the region, the Kurds.

Under Obama, it is far
better to be an enemy of the United States than a friend.

Then, when Obama finally,
for political reasons, decided to approve air strikes against ISIS, they were
underwhelming and ineffective, doing virtually nothing to stop the advance of
those butchers.

And now what does Obama do
while the Kurdish city of Kobane is paying the price in blood for his
negligence?While the Massacre of
Kobane is in progress?

Wednesday, October 08, 2014

Over
the weekend, my novel Pilot Point became
available on Kindle.I decided to
put the e-book version on that platform to greatly broaden its availability.

And
count the ways Pilot Point is
available on Kindle!

1.
You may purchase the novel for only $2.99.

2.
If you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited (or are trying a free trial of the same),
you already have access to Pilot Point.Enjoy.

3.
If you have Amazon Prime and a Kindle device, you may “borrow” my novel through
the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library.

4.
. . . Well, for now, I’ll just say that’s for starters.And if you don’t wish to own a Kindle,
do be aware that there is a Kindle app that works on most devices.And I’ve read that you don’t even need
the app, that you can use a number of browsers to read Pilot Point up there on The
Cloud somewhere.But I’m
cloudphobic so I’ll leave that up to you.

Both
the print and Kindle versions of Pilot Point can be accessed at Amazon.If you want to go directly to the
Kindle page for Pilot Point, go here.

I
will say this experience is bringing home to me how the book business has been
revolutionized for the good of both readers and authors. But I’ll save that
topic for another day.

Tuesday, October 07, 2014

You
never know what detail of liturgy and worship is going to impress itself upon
you.This past Sunday, the 16th
Sunday after Trinity, it was the conclusion of the Gospel from Luke 7 after
Jesus raised the widow’s son from the dead at the gates of Nain:

And they glorified God,
saying . . . God hath visited his people.

And
in the remainder of the service and since then, it has occurred to me how in
manifold ways, God visits his people: in the Incarnation and first and second
Advents of Christ, in Christ being present in the Holy Communion, wherever two
or three are gathered in his name, in numerous episodes recorded in the Bible
and in numerous answers to prayer today, and more.

We
tend to think God’s default relation to us is very distant.But really his default relation to us
is very present, as in the Garden of Eden when he was “walking in the garden”
to converse with the first people and in his coming kingdom in which “the
dwelling place of God is with man.” (Rev. 21:3) This present fallen world in which God seems distant is the
aberration – an aberration to be done away.

But
even during this temporary distorted time of this fallen world, God remains the
same – He is the God who visits us, the God who is “very present” as Psalm 46
reminds us: